World celebrations ring in New Year despite terror jitters

World celebrations ring in New Year despite terror jitters

January 02, 2017
Fireworks explode over the Arc de Triomphe monument as part of New Year celebrations in Paris on Sunday. — AFP
Fireworks explode over the Arc de Triomphe monument as part of New Year celebrations in Paris on Sunday. — AFP




PARIS — Millions of people around the world shrugged off terror jitters to ring in 2017 in style, as Sydney kicked off the party with a spectacular fireworks display that lit up its iconic harbor.

Revelers crammed into major cities to celebrate New Year with security tightened amid fears large crowds of people could present a target for extremists.

Getting the festivities started was Sydney, where around 1.5 million people thronged Australia’s biggest city to watch midnight fireworks erupting from the Harbour Bridge. Crowds in Hong Kong also flocked to the waterfront to watch fireworks explode over Victoria Harbour while in Japan thousands packed the streets of Tokyo to release balloons into the air.

Celebrations swung into Europe with the night sky over Moscow’s Red Square literally painted red by the fireworks. And nearly 500,000 people were expected on Paris’s famous Champs-Elysees, where the Arc de Triomphe was lit up with a colorful countdown to 2017 and the word “welcome” in dozens of languages.

The raucous celebrations drew to an end a year of political shocks, from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union to the election of maverick leaders in the United States and Philippines.

It has also been a year of celebrity deaths from David Bowie to Prince and Mohammed Ali. 2016 was also a year of bloodshed and misery that has seen the war in Syria, Europe’s migrant crisis and numerous terror attacks dominate the headlines. The violence continued on Saturday, with twin bomb blasts killing at least 27 in a busy market area in central Baghdad.

But this did not stop people flooding the streets of the Iraqi capital to celebrate and families in evening dress headed to swanky hotels for parties.

Fadhel Al-Araji, a 21-year-old from the neighborhood of Sadr City, already had his beer in the back of his car. “Tonight is about fun... Everybody can do what they want and nobody cares. We need a night like this, Iraq needs it,” he said, behind the wheel of his beat-up Toyota.

In the shattered Syrian city of Aleppo, 20-year-old student Abdel Wahab Qabbani was also determined to see in 2017 in a positive frame of mind. “The last two years, I didn’t go out for New Year. This time, I’m going to party,” he said.

The Gulf emirate of Dubai marked the New Year with its usual gigantic pyrotechnics off the world’s highest skyscraper, Burj Khalifa, as well as other landmarks.

This year’s celebration passed without problems, unlike last year when a fierce blaze broke out at a nearby tower.

But revelers did have to contend with reinforced security measures and a heightened police presence.

There were some 2,000 extra officers in Sydney after a man was arrested for allegedly making online threats against the celebrations and garbage trucks were deployed to block any attempt to plough a vehicle into the crowd. — AFP


January 02, 2017
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